


Viewfinder

by Cowardly Lion (Catsmeow)



Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: Established Relationship, M/M, Shopping Malls, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-28
Updated: 2017-10-28
Packaged: 2019-01-25 18:47:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,611
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12538748
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Catsmeow/pseuds/Cowardly%20Lion
Summary: An ordinary trip to the mall with SG-1, Janet, and Cassie gives Sam a whole new perspective.





	Viewfinder

**Author's Note:**

> Season 5, no spoilers. Written January 2010 to the prompt "resolution".

Sam cruised the parking lot at the mall. The traffic wasn't bad for a Saturday afternoon so she easily found two empty spaces next to each other and near the main entrance. She pulled into the spot closer to the mall, leaving the one to her left for the others.

Cassie bounced excitedly in the back seat, more like a little kid than the teenager she was. "I still don't see why we couldn't all go in Jack's truck."

"Just because six people can fit into the colonel's truck, it doesn't mean they should." Despite having had to repeat the point several times, Janet's voice still held a note of amusement.

"I know," sighed Cassie, "but I still think it would be more fun if we could all ride together."

"We'll be together again once we get out of the car." Janet unbuckled her seat belt and reached for her purse.

"Yeah, but I bet as soon as we hit the mall everyone scatters." Cassie's enthusiasm dimmed. "We always do."

"Maybe," said Sam, "but I'm sure we'll be together again for lunch." She grabbed her own purse and opened her door.

Cassie agreed with a nod as she opened her door and got out. "Yeah, no way Jack or Teal'c are going to miss lunch. And Daniel's quieter about it, but he packs away just as much."

"Sweetie, it's not nice to make personal remarks," admonished Janet as she shut the car door behind her.

Cassie looked abashed. "Sorry."

Sam shut her door as well then clicked the remote to lock the car. She joined Cassie and Janet by the trunk as they waited for the men to get out of the truck. The day was just on the verge of being too hot for comfort and she was glad she had worn shorts instead of jeans. A gentle breeze counteracted the heat flowing up her legs from the sun-warmed pavement. Her lightweight leather sandals made a nice change from the heavy confining boots she usually wore. She looked down at her feet and wiggled her toes with their boring coat of clear polish. Pedicure day with Janet and Cassie was next week. Now that sandal weather had come to Colorado it was time for fancy polish. Maybe even a design on the big toe. Daisies would be nice.

A triple slam of the truck doors got her attention. Daniel reached them first since he had been riding in the back seat and Teal'c sauntered up behind him. Squinting, the colonel adjusted his sunglasses as he rounded the corner of the truck to join them. His arrival was the signal for the group to start walking, making small talk as they headed into the mall.

Sam ended up in the middle of pack. Ahead of her, Teal'c and Janet discussed the latest developments on he daytime soap opera they both followed. Behind her, the colonel was engaged in some good-natured teasing about Daniel's allegedly bad handwriting while Daniel turned the accusation around by reminding the colonel about some amusing errors the colonel's notoriously illegible writing had caused.

It had been a long time since she had heard that kind of relaxed friendly banter between her friends. For a while there, she had been afraid the problems between the two men had escalated past verbal skirmishes and might actually result in a physical altercation. It seemed as if there was no salvaging their friendship. Then suddenly, just a couple of weeks ago, there it was again. Friendship. Camaraderie. They were back on the same wavelength and everyone around them had breathed a sigh of relief. 

Sam had been dying to find out exactly what had happened to resolve the problem. She had been trying to get a moment in private with Daniel without being obvious about it. Setting up a casual meeting in private was more difficult than it sounded and so far she had had no luck. Maybe after the girl's day out next weekend, before going home, she would run by Daniel's apartment with some coffee and muffins for a chat. It had been too long since she had just stopped by like that and she missed their time together.

The main entrance to the mall was busy with people coming out trying to get past people going in. There was a traffic jam over on the right hand side as a woman pushing a double stroller tried to maneuver the heavy glass doors as other shoppers walked past her. Teal'c quickened his stride in that way he had of moving faster without looking as if he were hurrying. Cassie was right behind him. Together, they held the doors and helped the woman enter the mall ahead of them. Once inside the mall, the cool air made Sam shiver a bit but she quickly got used to it.

"So, what's the agenda again?" the colonel asked as they headed toward the main corridor toward the center of the mall.

Cassie was the first to speak up. "Jewelry boutique and the music store for me!"

"I'd like to go to the electronics store for a new camera," added Janet.

"That reminds me," said Daniel, "I need some more lens cloths."

"Did you not procure a new package quite recently?"

"Yeah, Teal'c, not two weeks ago. But I lost them on our last, ah, outing. I think it was the sprint for home that did it."

"I myself am in need of candles."

"Jeez, T. Don't you already have, like, a thousand of those things?"

"Your ability to estimate appears to have deteriorated sharply, O'Neill. Perhaps you should seek assistance from Dr. Robinson. I believe he has a doctorate in mathematics from M.I.T."

Cassie giggled. "Oh, snap! Good one, Teal'c."

The colonel rolled his eyes. Next to him Daniel smiled and bumped shoulders with him. The colonel turned his head to smile back at Daniel and ruffled his hair. Sam suppressed a grin as she watched them. It really was good to see them getting along. Eventually she'd get a chance to talk to Daniel and find out what the catalyst had been.

"Here's the electronics store," said Janet. "I won't be too long. Do you guys want to wait then go to each store as a group or would you rather separate?"

"Separate!" said Cassie.

"You are not going to the boutique by yourself young lady." Janet cocked her head, one eyebrow raised. "It won't kill you to wait for me to finish before you go check out the latest earrings. If we separate, you can either stay with me or go with one of the others, but there will be no wandering the mall alone."

"But I'm almost fourteen," she protested.

Janet nodded. "That's exactly my point."

"We'll make sure you get to the boutique," Sam assured her. "You won't miss out. I promise."

"We just want to make sure you're safe, okay?"

The colonel's firm tone had Cassie subsiding immediately. Soon after her arrival on Earth a few years back, she had quickly learned there was no point in pushing the issue once he used that voice.

"I believe it would be more effective for us to divide at this point. By undertaking individual errands simultaneously our shopping will be accomplished more quickly allowing us to proceed to the restaurant much sooner."

"Sounds good to me," agreed Sam. "I'll stay with Janet and Cassie."

"I will be at the candle store as I am in need of additional soy candles in the scent of ginger citrus blend. I wish to try the beeswax candles as well." 

"Yes, well, the book store over there is calling to Daniel so loudly that I can hear it too."

The colonel pointed to the large bookstore across the corridor from them. Two stories tall and blessed with its own coffee shop, it was a favorite hangout for Daniel. Only a few weeks ago, Daniel would have gone with Teal'c while the colonel would have made an acerbic remark about not needing any company that might get in his way and slow him down then gone off alone. To have him now proposing to tag along with Daniel was quite a change. 

Sam checked her watch. "How about we meet up by the fountain in the center in one hour?" 

Everyone agreed. Teal'c headed for the escalator to the second floor for his favorite store as the colonel and Daniel headed across the hall. They got no farther than the table just inside the entrance before Daniel started grazing through the books displayed there.

Turning her attention back to Janet, she saw her friend was already being waiting on. Cassie, either bored or disinterested, had wandered off to check out headphones while Janet was listening to the spiel from the sales associate, a young lady who appeared to be in her late teens at most. 

Frowning, Janet asked the associate, "What was that thing about the zoom again? There's optical and what?"

"Optical and digital. The optical is ten times and the digital is up to twenty-five times." The young lady kept looking up as though trying hard to remember.

"What's the difference between them?" Janet turned the camera over in her hands, clicking buttons and watching the LCD screen change.

The associate hesitated. "Optical has to do with the lenses that are in the camera and the digital is, um, it...the camera itself makes the picture bigger."

"Interpolated resolution," prompted Sam.

The associate blinked rapidly. "Um, I don't think it has an interpreter. The menus are all in English."

The poor young lady was obviously in over her head. Sam was often amazed at how little training new employees usually received. So often, the only thing they knew was what was printed on the box the item came out of. If they lasted long enough, they might learn some more but until then they weren't very helpful. Sam took over the explanation.

"Basically, optical resolution has to do with the lenses themselves, the physical lenses in the camera. That's the type of zoomeveryone is familiar with because all cameras have that. Each camera, or each set of lenses actually, has a specific and measurable number of pixels that they can capture. Those pixels are finite. They have a maximum capacity. What they're calling digital zoom is actually interpolated resolution. That is, the image captured by the lenses is enlarged through a process of adding pixels to that finite number. This is done using software that adds pixels by sampling the optical pixels around the pixels being inserted to decide what color that pixel should be to blend in."

"Sort of like padding your bra," joked Janet, "so your boobs look bigger than they are." 

The sales associate giggled and covered her mouth. "Sorry."

"Kind of. It's also like, oh," Sam searched for an analogy, "reading between the lines, in a way. The program has to fill in something that's not immediately observed, but which belongs there based on what it can see. The problem is that you can lose clarity in the upper range of interpolation. Here, let me show you."

Sam put her hand out and Janet gave her the camera. She took a moment to familiarize herself with the camera controls then demonstrated.

"Okay, first I'll take a photo using the maximum setting for the optical zoom which in this case is five times magnification."

She looked around for a subject, something a long way off that would clearly show the difference both in zoom and clarity when the back of Daniel's head caught her eye. He and the colonel had made it to the center of the book store but were still in the main aisle clearly visible. Focusing on the pair, she set the camera for five times zoom and snapped the picture. 

"Now, we'll review the picture." She held the camera so that Janet and the associate could both see the LCD screen. "We can see the colonel and Daniel from head to toe and the image is sharp, crisp, with clean lines." 

"Okay. Got it," said Janet.

"Now, same subject with the digital zoom."

This time Sam increased the zoom so that the men filled the viewfinder from about waist high to the tops of their heads. Daniel was looking down at a book in his hand, gesticulating emphatically with his other hand. The colonel laughed at something Daniel said and palmed his shoulder as Daniel grinned at him. Sam took the photo. 

Hitting the review button, she pulled up the second photo and her breath caught in her throat.

"Huh. I see what you mean," said Janet. "It's obviously them, but the photo's not as sharp as the first one."

"Yeah, it's kind of blurry," added the associate.

"Right. Sort of grainy I guess you'd call it," suggested Janet. 

Beside her, Janet and the associate discussed the differences between the two photos but Sam just let the conversation drift past her as she stared at the second photo.

She had watched the interaction with her own eyes through the camera lens, but hadn't seen this. The shutter had captured one specific instant and held it. Preserved it. Isolated from the distraction of sound and movement, the photo showed the colonel with his hand on Daniel, palm curved over the outside of the arm high up by the shoulder, spread fingers curling around the back while the thumb rubbed the whisper of a caress up the bicep. Daniel's face was down but his eyes looked up at the colonel through dark lashes, caught midway during the fraction of a second it took to raise his head.

Janet was right--the image was grainy. But as blurry as it was, it was still very clear that Daniel was looking directly into the colonel's eyes. Daniel's face was three-quarters profile, but Sam could see the upturn of the mouth, the crinkle of amusement at the corner of his eyes. The colonel's face was fully visible. His eyes held a softness and warmth that came through very clearly and his smile was indulgent.

She knew without a shred of doubt exactly what she was looking at. No wonder the colonel and Daniel were getting along so well now. She hadn't seen. She hadn't seen this at all. Not once had she looked beyond the obvious and filled in the rest. What else had she missed? All those arguments between them. Had this been lurking in the background? Was this the cause of the arguments or where they merely a symptom of something larger? How could she not have known?

"Sam? Yoo-hoo! Sam!" Laughing, Janet waved her hand in front of Sam's face. "I don't know where you went but it's nice to have you back."

"Oh, um, I--" Sam floundered then found her footing. "I was just thinking about some of the imaging systems at work and wondering if there was a way to optimize the clarity even with the interpolated resolution. We could get better results if I could find a way to do it."

"It's the weekend. You're allowed to relax," Janet teased. Turning to the associate, she said, "There's another camera I'd like to look at as well."

As Janet checked out various makes and models of camera, Sam thought about what she had discovered. There was no need to get Daniel alone anymore. She had her answer. Still, this weekend she would get those muffins and that coffee and spend time with her friend. Though perhaps it would be best to call first instead of just dropping by as she used to.

Finis


End file.
